DC Multiverse: Eidolons
by Rider Paladin
Summary: In the wake of 52's dual revelation of fractured time and multiple universes, the Monitors have set out to repair reality before its increasingly dichotic nature causes its own destruction. And they know just the people to help them. AU of Countdown
1. Worlds Crossed, Time Tossed

"DC Multiverse: Eidolons"

Chapter 1: "Worlds Crossed, Time Tossed"

Disclaimer: The DC Universe and its innumerable variants do not belong to me. They belong to Time Warner via DC Comics. The only thing I can be said to own is the idea for this story.

Author's note: It's "fact," or at least common opinion taken as virtual fact, that Countdown (to Final Crisis) sucks, that the concept as executed is an utter failure. Of course, we all know that Countdown is riding the coattails of 52, which had the dual revelation that "time is broken" and a version of the multiverse still exists. This is merely my take on how a post-52 series dealing with the particulars of that ought to be done. Here you will see characters both familiar and unfamiliar and hopefully you will enjoy my interpretations of them. Anyway, read on and see for yourselves.

* * *

Blue eyes opened underneath whiteout lenses framed by a vaguely birdlike domino mask. Those eyes saw a crimson void punctuated by paler red clouds. The owner of those eyes blinked, not sure whether he was dreaming or not. The skintight black triple-weave Kevlar/Nomex fabric of his body-sheath, marked by a wing-like blue stripe across his chest and extending down his arms, distinguished him as the Dick Grayson of the prime universe.

"Where am I?" he wondered.

Just then, he spotted a girl in her late teens, notable only for her green skin and the eight-pointed green star symbol on the white part of her mostly black uniform. He blinked. Was that . . . no, it couldn't be. She was dead, wasn't she?

"Jade?" he uttered.

"Dick?" the slightly younger replica of Jade responded. "You look . . . different."

"So do you," Dick answered. "Last I knew, you were dead."

"And you were way too old for me," Jade rejoined.

"Nightraven?" a familiar voice asked, prompting Dick to turn and see a dark-haired young man garbed in skintight, armored black fabric with a red T-badge on the left pectoral, red gloves, boots, and belt, a feather-scalloped black cape with red lining, and a red sharp-edged domino mask. Dick blinked when he saw the costumed young man. He looked . . . so much like . . .

"Tim?"

"Nightraven?" the black-and-red-garbed replica of Tim asked. "What's with the new costume?"

"I could say the same thing about you," Dick responded lightly.

"Hardy har har," the Tim doppelganger retorted and Dick could see the hard set of the younger man's jaw. It looked so much like the Tim he knew and yet harder, angrier than what he'd seen in his Tim; what he saw was largely bitter sadness and weariness. This Tim seemed angrier. "I've always worn this costume. You're the one who changed outfits."

"Ok, then." Dick looked to another one of the "residents" of this void. "Question?"

The faceless man, garbed in a gray duster and fedora over dark clothes, regarded Dick with a wary tilt of his head. "Do I know you?"

"Yeah, I'm Nightwing," Dick answered. "We used to work together. We both studied under Richard Dragon at one time or another. We both fought Lady Shiva."

"Those names don't ring a bell," the Question said curtly.

"What about Huntress?"

"Huntress?" Jade cut in.

"Yeah, Huntress," Dick said. He kept his eyes on the Question. "That name ring a bell?"

"No?" Question retorted sarcastically.

"This is weird," Dick mumbled. "I know all you guys, but one of you doesn't recognize me at all and the other two of you think I'm somebody different."

"Yeah, you're calling yourself Nightwing," the Tim doppelganger said. "You're Nightraven to me."

"Yeah, this is pretty weird," a female voice spoke into his ear, prompting Nightwing to jump in surprise. Rather, he would have jumped if there was a real floor or ground for him to jump off. Instead, he was just floating, so the most he could do was start a little.

"Who are you?" Nightwing asked.

"Atom," the voice replied, prompting Nightwing to turn his head and see a woman in the Atom's traditional blue-and-red costume with curly blonde hair sticking out of a hole in the back of her mask. As per her namesake, she was only two or three inches high . . . and standing on his shoulder.

"You're no Atom I ever met," Nightwing grunted.

"And you're no Dick Grayson I ever met, either," the female Atom replied jovially. "Of course, I never got to meet the esteemed Mr. Grayson; he's quite dead where I come from."

"Where you come from?" Nightwing repeated. "Are you from an alternate universe?"

"Wager we all are," the Atom replied. "My name's Jessica Palmer. Nice to meet you."

"I'm . . . Nightwing," Dick introduced himself.

"Huh," Question remarked. "I always suspected there were multiple dimensions to the universe, dimensions with their own versions of Earth, sometimes bleeding into each other."

"So did I!" Atom beamed excitedly. She hopped from Nightwing's shoulder to the Question's shoulder, clearing the distance like an Olympic athlete performing a long jump. "I think you and I are gonna get along."

"Maybe," Question replied. "But maybe this is an illusion. Maybe I inhaled the gas a little too much."

Atom giggled. "You're kind of funny. And I think you'd be cute with a face."

Question looked at her. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Dad? Jennie?" another female voice uttered, melodious yet steel-strong.

Nightwing and Jade turned to look at the new speaker, finding a girl or young woman, probably slightly younger or older than twenty, floating in their midst. The girl was very tall, tall like an Amazon warrior, and with a lightly bronzed gold-orange skin tone. Her physique was distinguished by a combination of solid, defined muscle and voluptuous curves, both generously exposed by a shoulder-baring purple leotard that was somewhat skimpy in the crotch area and was decorated by a silvery wing symbol with a feathery fringe framing the plunging neckline. Black hair descended down her back to her knees in voluminous waves and solid green eyes with no pupil or iris stared out of a highly expressive, beautiful face.

Nightwing momentarily forgot to breathe. This girl, this young woman, who called him "Dad," looked so much like . . . so similar to . . .

"Kory?"

"No, my name is Mar'i," the Kory-like girl answered sharply, and Nightwing could see Kory's fire in this girl's eyes.

"Are you from Tamaran, too?" Nightwing asked.

"My mother was born on Tamaran," Mar'i replied. "She's dead now. Has been dead since I was a little girl."

"And . . . who was your father?" Nightwing was hesitant but firm in his question.

"You. A different you. The you where I come from."

"Another universe . . ." Nightwing couldn't believe it. Somehow, someway, there was a world where he and Starfire had stayed together, or gotten back together, and their love had birthed this wondrous girl that now stood before him.

"You're not going to faint, are you?" Mar'i asked sharply.

"If he did, he'd be just like most Terrans I've heard of," a somewhat airy yet sharp female voice remarked. "Good people, overall, but rather frail in body and mind."

That voice sounded familiar to Nightwing. He looked around for the speaker. When he found her, he saw a tall blonde girl, about Mar'i's age, dressed in a white diaphanous gown that somehow prevented onlookers from seeing the fullness of her charms. Her face . . . "Kara?"

"You know me?" the Kara doppelganger asked.

"Yeah . . . where I come from," Nightwing replied uneasily.

"Hey," a young male voice asked, "didn't I team up with you guys once or twice?"

Nightwing and the Tim doppelganger turned to the speaker, a teenage African-American with oddly styled braided locks and wearing a white domino mask with blue goggles. His outfit was a long blue coat over a tight black shirt with an encircled lightning emblem and loose blue-highlighted black pants with blue-and-gold boots and gloves. The young man stood on top of a flat metal disk and seemed to be floating on it with his own power.

"I'm not sure . . ." Nightwing said. He looked at him. "Wait, are you supposed to be some kind of teenage Black Lightning?"

"I've met the guy; he and I are kinda mentor-student, but the name's Static," the teenage boy replied. "Remember that." He looked at the Tim doppelganger. "Robin? When did you change your costume?"

"It's _Talon,_" the Tim doppelganger corrected sharply.

"Ok," Static said. "You wanna change your name, that's fine by me."

"It's _always_ been Talon," the Tim doppelganger insisted.

"Whoa, you really are from an alternate universe," Static said. He looked at Nightwing. "Let me guess, so are you, right?"

"Yeah," Nightwing admitted.

"I could tell; you cut your hair," Static remarked sardonically.

"Yeah, I used to have long hair," Nightwing admitted. "Then I realized it got in my way and I had it cut."

A scoff was heard nearby and everyone turned to spot a copper-haired teenage boy in white-highlighted skintight black with a white circle on his chest and a black domino mask covering his face. "Hey, don't mind me."

"Who are you?" Mar'i asked.

"Daybreaker," the black-garbed young man replied. "And we're gonna get our answers soon."

"How do you know?" Question asked.

"Because I volunteered for this," Daybreaker answered with a sardonic grin.

"Lucky you," Talon sneered. "I just got kidnapped."

"What is this place?" Jade asked.

"It is the world in between worlds," a toneless female voice replied. "The space between dimensions. The Bleed."

"Bleed?" Question echoed.

All nine turned to face the source of the voice, a slight woman with indigo-slate skin, pointed ears, and purple hair. She was garbed in a skintight purple battle outfit and black eyes stared out from her face. It could have been a pleasant face, a lovely face even, if not for the utter cold porcelain of her expression.

"I am Forerunner," the woman spoke. "I will be your guardian, your instructor, your companion."

"For what?" Static asked. "What are we doing here?"

"Your worlds are in danger," Forerunner answered. "And not just your worlds, but all worlds. The multifarious dimensions of the multiverse will eventually collapse on themselves."

"Why?" Atom asked.

"Because the universe was not supposed to dichotomize to the extent that it has," Forerunner explained. "One became two, two became four, four became sixteen, sixteen became two hundred and fifty-six, and now there are a multitude of dimensions within the vastness of the universe. This was not meant to be."

"Why not?" Atom challenged. "How do you know that this isn't the natural state of reality?"

"I know because I am a servant of the Monitors," Forerunner replied coldly. "The Monitors – all 52 of them – are charged with watching over the multifarious universes. They cannot directly intercede, but they can do so through me . . . and all of you."

"Why pick us?" Jade questioned.

"Because you are the ones the Monitors find most worthy of such a mission," Forerunner answered. "You should consider that a compliment."

"Why kidnap us from our worlds?" Mar'i asked. "For crying out loud, there are people who need me back where I come from!"

"And you will be able to return to them at the precise moment they will need you most," Forerunner replied. "If you succeed, that is."

"What do you mean?" Mar'i interrogated.

"Time is broken," Forerunner expounded. "The time stream has fractured, split itself into manifold parallel tributaries, and the whole structure is beginning to collapse under its own weight. This impending collapse is reflected in the traumatic events that have befallen your worlds. Dick Grayson of the prime universe, is it not true that your brothers and sister within your family of urban paladins have suffered greatly in recent times? Jennifer-Lynn Hayden of secondary prime universe two, have you not lost your world's greatest hero? Timothy Drake of the third secondary prime universe, have you not been bereft of the woman you call lover? Victor Sage, is not Captain Atom on the verge of a nuclear meltdown reflected in greater emotional instability?"

"All right, we get it!" Mar'i exploded. "What's the point?!"

"And you, Mar'i Grayson, did not your world descend into anarchic violence perpetrated and perpetuated by young metahumans with no regard for the ideals and morals of their predecessors?" Forerunner went on. "Daybreaker, was not your world stripped of its adults?"

"Not answering my question," Mar'i snarled. "What's the point?"

"The point, Nightstar, is that the fracturing of time is causing not just your realities, but many others as well, to suffer," Forerunner replied. "The trauma that has happened in your universes is spreading to other universes and none of them can take so much damage forever. Eventually, there will be a final trauma and then each universe will collapse, one by one, into accelerated entropy."

"Accelerated entropy?" Question echoed. "Is that your way of saying that the world is going to end violently?"

"Yes," Forerunner confirmed. "That is what will happen to each universe, unless you band together to stop it."

"Why should we believe you?" Question inquired. "Why should we believe that this is not some collective delusion on our parts?"

"You will come to believe soon enough," Forerunner answered. "I will show you, by taking you to the first universe we are to save."

* * *

Before the assorted persons knew it, they were out of the Bleed and looking out from the border of a cityscape. The cityscape was made up of tall, chrome-and-steel spires with tempered glass breaking up the façade every so often. The sky was dark gray with the gathered clouds, and the streets were almost empty.

"Where are we?" Question asked. "Looks familiar, though. Like Hub City."

"We're not in Hub City," Nightwing replied. "It looks . . . like Metropolis."

Just then, Jade got the sense that something was very wrong. She looked up at the darkened sky and saw green-and-gold-armored bulky humanoids flying through it. "What are those things?"

"I've seen them before," Nightwing replied. "They're Parademons. Darkseid's foot soldiers. Earth is probably being invaded right now."

"Then let's do something," Kara said.

Just then, the Parademons spotted them and descended upon them. Nightstar's response was a double-fisted purple starbolt to the first wave, incinerating them all in one fell swoop. As the scorched Parademons fell to the ground, their backing companions came after Nightstar, who flew into the air to meet them with vicious punches. Kara soared up to aid Nightstar, her eyes burning with heat, heat that poured out of those eyes and incinerated the Parademon immediately coming after her.

Static glided up on his metal disk and began projecting streams of electromagnetic force at the Parademons, knocking them back. Jade rose into the air, her body glowing emerald, and fired emerald energies at the Parademons, battering them with the force of the blast. Despite the best efforts of those with the power of flight, the Parademons did make it past them to attack the ground-bound heroes.

Nightwing immediately drew his escrima sticks and began to fight the Parademons as best as he could with his merely human abilities. The strategy he found best was to use his superior speed and maneuverability to keep himself safe in between opportunities to attack their weak points. Beside him, Talon seemed to find that a good idea, too, only he was using twin combat knives in order to attack. Surprisingly enough, the blades were apparently strong enough and sharp enough to cut through the Parademons' armor.

Daybreaker was moving between Parademons, taking more hits than he dodged. Then again, Nightwing noted, the masked teenager seemed rather distracted, like he was watching for too many things at once and not focusing enough on anything in particular. He would have to find a way to train that out of the rusty-haired boy, he mused silently as he dodged yet another Parademon attack.

The Question seemed to be in really bad shape, judging by the way he was retreating for one of the cars. He smashed the driver's-seat window open and squeezed inside, but not to hide as an onlooker might have suspected. No, he quickly hotwired the car and began using it as a bludgeoning tool for Parademons, punching out any that tried to squeeze in after her.

_Resourceful,_ Nightwing thought, striking a Parademon in the jaw with his escrima stick. Fortunately, the sticks were made out of ultra-hard and ultra-dense material, ensuring that they wouldn't break so easily against the thick head of a Parademon.

Atom had shrunk to escape the notice of the Parademons, only to bounce around hitting them just as hard as she could have done at normal size. In fact, she seemed to be hitting them even harder than that, if such a thing was possible. Indeed, it was the result of learning how to manipulate her atomic density regardless of what size she was. She lowered her density to make herself lighter and faster, then increased her destiny so she could hit harder.

Forerunner was moving so quickly she was barely visible even to Nightwing's speedster-trained eyesight, let alone the sight of someone who had no experience with speedsters. Not only was she using that speed to evade the Parademons, she was using it to attack them, her blows shattering the armor protecting their heads . . . and their skulls. Some Parademons managed to land blows on her person, but she didn't seem very much affected, or maybe she just didn't let it show. In any case, they seemed to be hurt more than she was by their own hits, which she used to her advantage.

"What's going on here?" Kara asked. "What are these creatures?"

"Parademons," Static replied. "From Darkseid's army. I know. I've seen them before. I've even fought some."

"Who is Darkseid?" Kara asked.

"Only the meanest S.O.B. to ever grace the universe," Static explained even as he warded off several more Parademons that thought to surround him with a multidirectional electromagnetic wave. "He's a tyrant, and he's tried to take over or destroy Earth – at least my Earth – a few times. It's not something we enjoy."

Jade looked at Nightstar. "I can manifest my power in the form of any type of energy I want. Yours comes from ultraviolet radiation, right?"

"Yeah," Nightstar replied, "but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Kara's heat vision is from the same family as ultraviolet radiation, which is electromagnetic waves," Jade explained. "And Static manipulates electromagnetism . . ."

"I get it," Static cut in. "If we combine our powers, we can take these things down, right?"

"Yes!" Jade exclaimed triumphantly.

"Then let's do it," Kara said.

Nightstar's hands glowed violet, while Jade's glowed green, Static's hands and eyes glowed white with blue-violet framing, and Kara's eyes burned white-hot. As one, the four young people projected their energies, pooling them together as one overwhelming electromagnetic force blast from multiple spectra. The Parademons could do nothing against this force except simply burn and plummet to their ends.

"Whoo!" Static sighed loudly. "Is that all?"

"Not really," Nightstar replied. "Our ground-bound friends could use our help."

"Then let's go," Jade said, diving toward the Parademons with Kara, Nightstar, and Static following, Kara accelerating ahead of Jade. In response, Jade poured on the speed, suspecting that Kara was attempting to circumvent her authority. Nightstar poured on the speed as well, wanting to get to the man she called father in her world before the Parademons could kill him. Static just soared down on his disk and began blasting the Parademons with electromagnetic force.

Nightstar had gained so much momentum that it was child's play for her to plunge her starbolt-reinforced hand through a Parademon's back and out of his chest like a knife. She ripped her hand out and swept her leg out to knock the Parademon's legs out from under him, finishing him with a full-power starbolt. Nightwing watched in horror at his would-have-been daughter's savagery, reminding him so much of how Starfire had been when he first met her that it unsettled him. With nary a pause, she fired another starbolt at a Parademon, punching through his chest and destroying his internal organs with the sheer force of the blow.

Jade shaped her emerald energies into barriers to protect herself and her nearby comrades. When she wasn't doing that, she was shaping that power into viridian blades that flew at the Parademons. Kara was still incinerating Parademons with her heat vision and Static had charged his hands with electromagnetic energy in order to reinforce his punches.

As hard as they were fighting and as many Parademons as they were taking down, Darkseid's troopers just kept coming. Nightwing didn't know how long they'd been at it, but he knew that some of his comrades – and maybe he, too – would tire out long before the Parademons ran out of numbers. Just as he thought things couldn't get that bad, they did. In fact, they got worse.

A blast of scorching heat and crimson light ripped through the air, Nightwing barely being able to dodge in time. The others either managed to dodge or ended up getting hit by the blast. Fortunately, the ones getting hit were largely able to protect themselves, either through their own durability or their powers. Once the first Boy Wonder thought he could chance a look at their assailant, he saw a tall, imposingly broad-shouldered man in pitch-black armor with a black helm concealing his face, the only visible part being burning red eyes. The armor was decorated only by a hollowed-out pentagonal symbol, turned on its point and with a red outline and with twin red lightning bolts forming an S-like symbol inside.

"No . . ." Nightwing uttered. _It can't be. Not him. Not of all people._

Nightwing wasn't the only person horror-stricken by this dark vision. Jade, Atom, Nightstar, Kara, and Static were also out of sorts from the attack that had been directed at them, as well as whom they suspected the attacker to be.

"This is wrong," Static said, with no traces of levity in his voice. "This is just plain wrong. Superman? Uh, you were aiming for the Parademons, right? Not us?"

The armored man looked at Static and the red glow of his eyes seemed to intensify. That red glow soon turned into a blast of heat, which Static blocked and absorbed with an electromagnetic force field. "You know, heat is just another manifestation of the electromagnetic spectrum. And I _control_ electromagnetism. Just to let you know who you're messing with."

"This isn't Superman," Nightstar said. "No Superman I know would side with Darkseid." She shot a starbolt at the armored man, only for the blast to be quietly absorbed by his armor. The armored man glared at her and fired another blast of heat vision, this one more powerful than the one he had fired at Static. Nightstar crossed her arms, revealing silver bracers on her forearms, and the bracers managed to hold against the heat vision attack. Once the attack was over with, she uncrossed her arms and flew at the armored man with enough speed and force to at least bruise . . . if the armored man had allowed her to connect.

With the speed of thought, the armored man grabbed Nightstar's wrist and began to squeeze. Nightstar simply used that as an opportunity to set off a close-range starbolt, which scorched the dark man's armor. She then swung her leg into a vicious kick that managed to knock the armored man off her. She quadruple-somersaulted in midair and uncurled to slam her feet down on his chest in a hard kick made all the harder by the momentum she had gathered.

Kara saw the symbol on the armored man's chest and looked at the bracelet on her wrist. The bracelet was silver and inscribed with the sigil of the House of El, which a Terran would interpret as an "S" within an upside-down pentagon. The symbol on the armored man's chest was very similar, the only difference being how the "S" in his symbol was formed.

"No . . ." she uttered. "Kal-El?"

The armored man heard his name spoken and stared down at Kara. "How do you know my name?" he asked, his voice deep and forbidding.

"You are not Kal-El!" Kara declared. "The Kal-El I know wouldn't have grown into a tyrant! Wouldn't have grown into a monster who betrayed the planet he was sent to protect!"

"Earth was never my home," Kal-El answered. "I was raised on Apokolips, dominion of my lord and father Darkseid."

Nightwing gasped in horror, as did everyone else who knew anything about Superman. "Damn . . ." Static uttered. "This is like what happened in my world. Superman got brainwashed into thinking he was Darkseid's son and attacked Earth for him! We gotta snap him out of it!"

"Somehow . . . I don't think he's being brainwashed," Jade said, her eyes and voice filled with horror. "Somehow, I think this is a world where he really _was_ raised by Darkseid."

"In that case, what are we gonna do?" Talon asked. "Damn, and I thought Ultraman was bad."

"Ultraman?" Nightwing asked.

"Yeah, Ultraman," Talon confirmed defiantly, almost as though challenging Nightwing to make something of it. "He's to my world what this guy probably is to this world."

"And what's that?" Nightwing asked.

"Terror." Talon's jaw was grimly set and his voice was low. "Absolute f$#& terror."

Hearing Tim swear was something Nightwing wasn't often exposed to. The Tim Nightwing knew was almost always in control of himself, so much more like Batman that Nightwing honestly wanted to be or wanted Tim to be. Then again, this Tim wasn't the Tim Nightwing knew; this Tim was far darker, even more so than the Tim Nightwing knew. Hearing the tone in Talon's voice as he said those four words, Nightwing at last began to understand why this Tim was so dark.

"We're gonna have to find a way to fight him, but we're gonna do it smart," Nightwing said. "Jade, your Starheart power is magical in nature, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Jade asked.

"In my universe, Kryptonians have no special protection against magic-based attacks," Nightwing explained. "I don't know how Kryptonian physiology works in this world, but I'm willing to give it a shot."

"If you're anything like the Dick Grayson I know, you're probably right," Jade said. She charged up the mystical properties of her Starheart powers and flew up at Kal-El swiftly, aiming to strike him as hard and as fast as she could. Kal-El opened fire with his heat vision on her, but she wreathed herself in a shield that protected her from the blast. When she was within striking distance, she punched him with a Starheart-empowered fist, surprisingly managing to knock him back.

"Whoa . . ." Static uttered. "I never saw anybody deck Superman like that unless they had Kryptonite."

"Who knows, she might have used her powers to duplicate Kryptonite radiation when she hit him," Atom remarked.

"Kryptonite?" Kara asked.

"In the worlds where we have Kryptonians, Krypton is a dead planet," Nightwing replied. "Its only remnants are the man we call Superman, plus some others, and green rocks we call Kryptonite. It's not harmful to humans, at least not immediately, but its radiation can kill a Kryptonian with enough exposure."

Kara seemed to pale at the mention of Krypton as a dead planet. Nightwing realized his error; whatever universe this Kara came from, she must have been very recently – at least in her personal timeline – sent away from Krypton. She probably didn't know yet what had befallen her home-world, and that was assuming things played out the same way in her universe that it did in his.

Of course, Kal-El quickly recovered and his eyes were lurid with fury. "You dare strike me?!" he roared, and retaliated with a thunderous blow, which Jade was not quite able to outmaneuver. She caught it as a glancing blow, her shields absorbing most of the impact but barely. It was still enough to send her plummeting toward the ground, only for Static to catch her by tapping into the energy field around her body and taking control of it to levitate her some "safe" distance away from Kal-El.

Unfortunately, Kal-El wasn't done yet. Kal-El was angry that he had been wounded and he wanted to repay the green girl in kind. He dived swiftly toward her, intending to tear through her in his pass. Of course, he got caught by Static's electromagnetic field and thrown hard some distance away.

"How did you do that?" Talon asked.

"Sunlight is a form of electromagnetic radiation," Static replied with a cool he didn't really feel. "I just jacked into the solar radiation in his cells and used it to take control of his body."

"Whoa," Kara uttered. She immediately raised her estimate of Static's abilities by several notches.

Kal-El managed to recover, landing on his feet and super-speeding toward Static. Kara and Forerunner moved to intercede, both extraterrestrials blocking Kal-El's attack. Kal-El attempted to swat Kara aside, but Kara dodged and did an aerial flip to kick him in the chin. Forerunner battled him, channeling the momentum from her speed and the toughness of her bodily tissues into blows of remarkable force.

"You're quite strong," Kal-El remarked.

Forerunner did not answer with words, instead with a particularly forceful blow that sent Kal-El skidding backward on his heels. The armored Kryptonian regained his footing and the battle resumed . . . until the crashing noise reminiscent of a thunderbolt rang out. The combatants looked up, finding a boom tube open in the sky. A tall, forbidding man in red-and-blue armor with a silver helm concealing his face emerged from that boom tube, joined by six others. Three were men, two tall and imposing in build like the Kryptonian and the third somewhat slight of build and younger. The two tall men were in armor, one's armor being silver and dark gray with rivets in the silver parts of the suit and the other's being sleek and black with a bat emblem within a gray oval emblazoned on his torso and a pointy-eared, red-eyed helm covering his face. The young man wore green-highlighted black with a green domino mask and a stylized lantern symbol emblazoned on his chest. The other three were women, one a Tamaranean woman in silver armor over a black body-sheath and the second a woman with a winged harness and hawk-styled helmet evocative of Hawkman or Hawkgirl. The third was a woman with flowing, voluminously curly red hair and a skimpy green costume.

"Who are these guys?" Question asked, getting out of his car. "Is this world insane or what?" He snorted to himself.

"Kal-El!" the red-and-blue-armored man shouted.

"If it isn't Orion and his Justice League," Kal-El sneered, his disdainful tone deepening at the word "justice."

"You will stop . . . or you will die, Kryptonian," Orion replied. "Your choice."

* * *

End Notes: That's the first chapter of the adventures of our heroes through time and space and manifold worlds. Now, if you want to see how this story progresses, how the characters cope with being removed from their worlds and forced to save others before being able to return, you'll have to wait for the next chapter. In the meantime, let me know what you thought of this one.


	2. Despair of Justice

"DC Multiverse: Eidolons"

Chapter 2: "Despair of Justice"

Disclaimer: The characters that will be depicted in this story belong exclusively to DC Comics, as they were created by people working for DC Comics and the character licenses are owned by DC Comics. I only own this story.

Author's note: If the world I popped the team (and the readers) into seems familiar at all, it's because I based it off the Elseworlds graphic novel, Superman: The Dark Side. The only thing you really need to know is that it's a world where baby Kal-El's ship detoured to Apokolips and Darkseid raised him. It's not a very pleasant world and the team is going to end up very often going to worlds that are not very pleasant. If that doesn't turn you off, read on.

* * *

Kal-El glared at Orion, a glare that was fully returned by New Genesis's Dog of War. The other six flanking him looked at the chaotic tableau somewhat suspiciously. The "Batman" looked at Nightwing with no discernable expression behind his helm, but Nightwing was rather startled to see him.

"I . . . I know these people," he uttered.

"You do?" Jade asked.

"Batman, Steel, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl – I think – and . . . Blackfire." Nightwing shook his head. "But it doesn't make sense. Why would Blackfire be here?"

Kal-El unleashed another barrage of heat vision, this one directed at Orion, who retaliated with the Astro Force. Both energies collided and struggled mightily against each other before dissipating. In the flash, Kal-El had flown at Orion with inhuman speed to attack, only for Blackfire to intercede with a vicious kick. If Kal-El was staggered by this, he didn't let it show, as he retaliated with a brutal punch that would have shattered a normal human's jaw. For Blackfire, it only stung and she unleashed her burning orange starbolts upon Kal-El, who took the blast without flinching.

Green Lantern raised his ring hand and materialized a high-powered, high-tech emerald cannon with his ring. Mounting the cannon on his shoulder, he fired a barrage of explosive bullets from it at Kal-El, who bobbed and weaved through the assault like a boxer operating many times normal human speed. Green Lantern did not give up, intensifying the gunfire from his ring-generated cannon. Just as Kal-El was getting too close, the green-clad redhead launched herself at Kal-El with a mighty kick.

The kick did stagger Kal-El quite a bit as he momentarily struggled to regain his footing. Regain his footing he did, however, and he launched himself at the redhead with a punch hard enough to shatter steel. As it was, it wrenched her head around slightly, enough to put a nasty crick in her neck, but she bore the attack and struck back.

"I don't think I've seen her before," Nightwing said.

"Her name is Maxima," Forerunner explained. "Queen of Almerac, a planet home to a race of humanoids specifically bred and engineered for great physical and psychic power."

"Ok . . . she fought and worked with Superman a few times before in my world," Nightwing stated, remembering something he'd read in the Justice League Watchtower files once.

Maxima and Kal-El fought furiously, exchanging blows in both air and on land with great force and velocity. The very impact of their attacks would have shattered the windows within the vicinity if the windows hadn't been made highly resistant to such. Orion and his fellows watched, ready to intercede if they had to. The reality-tossed heroes were also ready to intercede, but they didn't even know where to begin. Those that knew Kal-El as a gentle, heroic soul in their worlds were appalled to see the brutal tyrant this world's incarnation had become.

"Where did these people come from?" Steel asked.

"I don't know," Batman replied, "but we'll worry about that when we have them safely in our custody." He turned to Orion. "Orion?"

"I know," Orion grunted hatefully. He activated his Mother Box and opened a boom tube, staring down at the reality-tossed heroes. "You're coming with us. Now."

"Why should we come with you?" Kara asked defiantly.

"Unless you would prefer to take on Kal-El, lose, and be sent to the slave pits or his harem, I suggest you do not trifle with me," Orion snarled.

"He means business, Kara," Nightwing said, planting a gentle yet firm hand on her shoulder.

Kara roughly shrugged his hand off her shoulder, nearly breaking the appendage. Nightwing withdrew his hand and tucked it behind his back, while the others reluctantly walked toward the boom tube. "Where does this one take us to?" Nightstar asked.

"Our base," Batman replied, the grim rumble of his voice even grimmer than Nightwing, Nightstar, or Static knew it sounded from the Batmen of their respective worlds.

"Maxima!" Hawkgirl shouted. "It's time to go!"

"I'm not done yet!" Maxima retorted, ducking under a punch from Kal-El and sweeping her leg out to trip him.

"Yeah, you are," Green Lantern replied, using his ring's energy as a tractor beam to pull Maxima away from Kal-El and into the boom tube with him, the rest of the "Justice League," and the reality-tossed heroes.

* * *

They emerged inside four austere walls, three of those walls layered with large screens and high-tech touch-boards. "Is this . . . ?" Jade asked.

"Our base," Steel finished in a voice heavy with sorrow.

"Who are you people?" Hawkgirl asked, holding her mace threateningly.

"In the world I come from, I know all of you," Nightwing replied. "Some of you were my friends. One of you was my mentor. Others were simply allies of the moment, regardless of our longstanding relationships or lack thereof." He sighed heavily. "And in the world I come from, Kal-El was a hero, not a conqueror."

"My Mother Box scanned all ten of you," Orion said. "Three of you are purely human, with no superhuman modifications or innate metahuman capabilities. One of you is a congenital metahuman, while another of you was artificially enhanced and two of you were subjected to genomic modifications from external sources. One of you is fifty percent human and fifty percent Tamaranean, and the Tamaranean half is genetically similar to Blackfire. One of you has traces in her genetic code of multiple races, including human and Martian, and the other is Kryptonian with a genetic link to Kal-El."

Blackfire looked at Nightstar. "Does that mean that she's my daughter?"

"No, more like your niece," Orion amended.

"Koriand'r is my mother," Nightstar shot back fiercely.

Blackfire visibly flinched, as though struck in the stomach by what Nightstar had said. "Koriand'r? She's alive where you come from?"

"No." Nightstar sighed heavily. "But she survived long enough to bring me into this world and I was lucky enough to know her for much of my childhood."

Orion looked at Nightstar and then Nightwing. "Mother Box cross-referenced your genetic codes. The human half of the girl's DNA is identical to yours."

"We already know that," Nightwing said.

Blackfire scoffed. "So in some distant universe, my sister married some Earthman and bore his whelp." She looked at Nightstar with some appraisal. "Apparently, Koriand'r's blood is quite strong in you. You look almost exactly like her, and that fire in your eyes reminds me of her."

"I think we're going to need some serious explanations here," Green Lantern remarked.

"Starting with the source of your presumption that you can drag me from the battlefield like some disobedient child," Maxima snarled.

"We needed them alive," Steel answered. "So we could get answers."

"You say you're from an alternate universe," Batman recounted. "You say you knew all of us at one point or another in our mutual histories in your native universe. You say Kal-El was not a tyrant, but a hero."

"He's telling the truth," Orion said. "Mother Box scanned their brains and their involuntary physical responses. Whatever else is going on, they believe they're telling the truth."

"All right," Batman said. "You seem like you know me best. How?"

"We're both orphans," Nightwing replied. "You lost your parents when you were 8. I lost mine when I was a little older. We both pushed ourselves far past the limits of our bodies so that we could make sure no other child had to suffer what we did. The difference is that you were alone . . . and I had help. Your help. You were my mentor. You taught me almost everything I needed to know; the rest was filled in by people you worked with and trusted implicitly, even if you couldn't bring yourself to say it out loud."

Batman sighed. "I knew someone like you once. He was killed. By Kal-El."

It took everything Nightwing had not to gasp in shock, but he shouldn't have been surprised. With this Batman as grim as he was, he probably never had the opportunity for someone like Nightwing to come into his life. That opportunity was brutally stripped from him, and Kal-El had probably done it with no more thought than a human stomping an insect. The thought of that . . . chilled the first and former Boy Wonder to the bone, to the very soul, even.

"Are you all from the same reality this one is?" Steel asked.

"Nope," Static replied. "We all come from different worlds, but some of you seem to pop up in at least half of them. Superman was a hero, too, where I come from."

"And where I come from," Jade added.

"And where I come from," Atom echoed.

"And where I come from," Nightstar repeated.

"And where I come from," Kara joined in. She paused. "At least, that's what he would grow to become if he comes into my care."

"All right, all right, we get it," Hawkgirl grumbled bitterly. "Kal-El's some freaking Boy Scout in the universes you come from. Well, we're not that lucky here!"

"Man, you got as much of a temper as the Hawkgirl I know," Static remarked.

"I can sympathize," Talon said. "My Kal-El is a bad guy, too. Hell, he's one of the chief bad guys where I come from."

"What happened here?" Daybreaker asked. "How'd things get to be like this?"

"It started ten years ago," a low bass voice replied, prompting the reality-tossed heroes to look and see a tall, broad-shouldered bald man in a black power suit stepping into the room. "Ten years ago, that damned Kryptonian and his forces came and stripped humanity of everything it fought to achieve."

"Lex Luthor," Nightwing spat, his tone full of anger. "What are you doing here?"

"Backing this resistance force," Lex replied. "Using my technology, my resources, my ingenuity, and my mind to keep this Justice League from being trimmed any more than it already has been."

"What's in it for you?" Nightstar asked. "I remember you heading a resistance force in my world, and you just used it as a way of seizing power for yourself."

"That was your world," Lex answered calmly. "I am not quite the man you knew there. No one person in two separate universes is exactly identical in both universes. There are subtle variations, either superficial or deeper, in one person who answers to the same name in two universes."

"A leopard doesn't change his spots," Nightstar snarled.

"Relax, Star," Talon said. "My Luthor's a good guy, after all."

"I'm starting to think your world is completely upside-down," Jade remarked bitingly.

Talon scoffed.

"If the bickering is over with, it's time I got back to the explanation," Lex cut in. "Kal-El came from the doomed planet of Krypton, rocketed to what his father thought to be relative safety on Earth just seconds before that planet exploded into space rocks. Judging by what my astronomer Dr. Emil Hamilton was able to glean a year ago, Darkseid took notice of Kal-El's vessel and used some sort of tractor beam to redirect its course to Apokolips. The rest . . ." He closed his eyes briefly, as though steeling himself before he could go on.

"What happened?" Jade asked.

"Darkseid raised Kal-El as his ultimate warrior," Lex replied, "pumping him with yellow sunlight and enhancing a few stray genes here and there until there was no one on Apokolips who could stand against his might. With Kal-El at his side, Darkseid razed New Genesis and spread his influence through the universe until he finally came to Earth. When he came to Earth, he sought a piece of what he called the Anti-Life Equation, which would allow him unlimited control over the fabric of the universe itself. He found half of the piece in the mystical side of the emerald energies that powered the Green Lantern Corps, as embodied by Alan Scott, Earth's first Green Lantern. He killed Scott and ripped the mystical green force out of him and then went for the Central Power Battery on Oa, the very source of the Green Lantern Corps' power. Kyle Rayner here is the only survivor and the only one with a still-functioning power ring."

"What about the rest of you?" Question inquired.

"With the exception of Batman, Steel, and myself, our force comes from or has ties to other planets that have fought against Darkseid's scourge," Lex explained. "Orion is a child of both Apokolips and New Genesis, Maxima lost her kingdom of Almerac to Darkseid, Blackfire's family and people on Tamaran were slaughtered almost wholesale by Darkseid's forces, Hawkgirl's harness and weaponry are the products of Thanagarian technology, and Rayner's power ring comes from the so-called Guardians of the Universe."

"Is there anyone else?" Atom asked.

"No," Lex answered curtly. "The energy matrix that fueled speedsters was also consumed by Darkseid, as another part of the Anti-Life Equation, and the Flash was powerless without it. Easy prey for Darkseid's Parademons. He went out fighting, though, which was the only thing that really made me respect him."

"How do you fight Kal-El and his forces?" Daybreaker asked. "I saw that guy in action. He's about as powerful as Kid Apollo!"

"Whoever this Kid Apollo is, he would probably be outfought by Kal-El," Batman remarked. "But your question is valid. We've mostly been fighting by reverse-engineering the Apokoliptian technology we've been able to pilfer and adapting Orion's New Genesis technology for our own uses. That's how Steel and I were able to engineer the armors that we use. They give us the ability to fight Kal-El on more or less even footing . . . as long as we stay with ranged weapons and distance attacks."

"I could hurt him," Jade said. "I can project my power as just about any type of energy I want, including Kryptonite radiation."

"His armor is sealed off against Kryptonite," Steel said. "The only way that would work is if we managed to damage the armor's shielding in some way . . . with an armor-piercing instrument. But nothing we've come with so far has worked."

"It couldn't make it past his armor?" Nightwing surmised.

"His senses were too sharp," Lex replied. "His reflexes were too quick and he incinerated our projectiles before they could reach him."

"Then we'll have to devise something faster and stealthier," Nightstar concluded.

"How do you do that?" Steel asked, perplexed.

"Just let me into your lab or wherever it is you cook up your weapons and I'll show you," Nightstar replied.

Batman, Steel, and Lex exchanged looks and their body language was clear; none of them thought it was a good idea to let Nightstar in. Just then, Kara interceded. "I can help Nightstar."

"You can? How?" Lex asked.

"I'm Kryptonian, remember?" Kara answered fiercely. "And if you want to know how to fight a Kryptonian, you go to a Kryptonian."

"She does have a point," Steel acknowledged.

"You sure about that?" Batman asked.

Steel nodded, sparing a brief look at Kara and Nightstar. "What about it?" Nightstar asked.

"We'll give you a chance," Batman decided. "But Steel is going to be watching both of you closely."

"Fine, give the girls a chaperone since they can't handle manly man technology," Nightstar droned mordantly.

"It's for our safety," Batman stated. "You're all strangers to us, regardless of what relation we might have in your universes."

"Man, if only Gear was here," Static lamented. "He could probably solve this pretty quick."

"Don't worry," Kara replied to Static. "Kryptonians are very smart." She turned to Nightstar. "Let's go."

Steel escorted the two girls out of the main room and into the side room that contained the League's tech lab, leaving the other seven members of the Justice League alone with the remaining eight reality-tossed heroes. "What are you doing here?" Lex asked. "Really?"

"It's gonna sound crazy, but we were sent here to fix things," Nightwing replied.

"Fix things?" Lex echoed scornfully. "You assume there is something to fix. In truth, this is a broken world; the only thing we can do is remake it."

"Maybe, but what's happened, what's going to happen, is what you get from reality falling apart," Nightwing answered.

"Reality falling apart?" Maxima asked, finally looking up from her sulking.

"Yes," Forerunner stated. "There are many more universes beyond this one and the ones those accompanying me come from. The time stream has become increasingly dichotic to the point of inevitable cataclysm. If we are able to wrest this planet from Darkseid's grip, we may be able to save this universe from entropic collapse. Then we will be gone."

"Gone to where?" Blackfire asked.

"Other worlds that need us," Forerunner replied simply.

"The Kal-El you know . . ." Batman started to say, looking Nightwing in the eye. "What makes him any different from the one in this reality?"

"The Kal-El I know was raised on Earth, by parents who loved him and who instilled in him a love and respect for humanity," Nightwing answered. "He was . . . is . . . my world's greatest hero."

Batman was silent, pondering a world in which Kal-El was a man to be trusted, admired, respected, emulated . . . adored. He shrugged it off; even if such a world existed, it wasn't for him. He couldn't live in it; he had to save the world he was born into. The world that had once belonged to humanity and could belong to humanity again, provided certain preparations came into fruition. He only hoped that the presence of these reality jumpers did not endanger it. With luck, they'd never even know.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the tech lab, Kara and Nightstar looked around. "This is beyond anything I've ever seen before," Kara uttered almost breathlessly. "And I thought Krypton was advanced."

"This is New God technology," Steel commented.

"I'll help," Nightstar offered. "I've seen New God technology in my reality. One of my best friends is the daughter of two New Gods."

Kara looked at Nightstar askance. "All right."

"Show us the weapons designs, including the ones you just have on the drawing board," Nightstar requested, although her urgency made it sound more like a demand.

Steel pulled back a section of wall, revealing scraps of high-tech weaponry and blueprints for even more advanced weapons. "That's what we've got. If you can make anything out of it that's better than what we've made, I'll kiss you."

Nightstar chuckled softly. "Really?" Her tone was one of subtle flirting.

Kara groaned. "Let's get to work, Mar'i."

* * *

In what was taken to be the main room of the Justice League base, Nightwing stared down Lex. "You still don't trust me?" Lex deduced smoothly. "That's well and good, because I don't trust you either. Any of you."

"The Lex Luthor I know would have made himself tyrant of the world if it wasn't for the Kal-El I know," Nightwing retorted.

"And the only reason Kal-El does not have total reign over this world is me," Lex answered with an insidious calm.

"Quit posturing," Blackfire grumbled. "Earthmen. Always measuring the size of their –"

"Komand'r," Orion snarled warningly.

"Your mission is to find a way to redeem this universe, right?" Lex recounted. "To save it from falling into premature entropic ruin, if I'm not mistaken."

Forerunner stared stonily at everyone present before her hard gaze landed on Nightwing. "Dick Grayson of Universe Zero, I need to speak with you."

Nightwing looked at Forerunner skeptically. "Why?"

Forerunner hardened her glare even more, signaling silently that she would brook no more questions. Nightwing nodded to Lex and walked over to Forerunner, who whooshed him to a more secluded area of the base. Once she stopped, Nightwing looked at her askance. "What is it?" he asked.

"The solution to redeeming this universe is a dual solution," Forerunner replied. "The equal and opposite forces of Kal-El and Darkseid and Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor must be expunged from this dimension."

"Expunge?" Nightwing repeated. "You mean, we kill them?"

Forerunner's obsidian eyes were harder than diamond. "Yes."

"I can understand Darkseid, Kal-El, and even Lex, but why Batman?" Nightwing was both confused and disconcerted.

"This universe's Luthor and Wayne are not to be trusted," Forerunner stated. "They have their own agenda for this world, one that they would be closer to fulfilling if not for Kal-El's presence on this Earth."

"I can't . . ." Nightwing uttered.

"These are not the same men you knew in your universe of origin," Forerunner harshly cut him off. "Lex Luthor's ambition consumes him in all worlds and would consume those worlds without someone to keep him in check. Bruce Wayne in many worlds has never fully trusted metahumans and you know full well that he has plotted against Earth's metahuman champions – many of whom were people you looked to and respected – in your own world. With Kal-El ravaging this world as he has, you have no idea what lengths this Bruce Wayne would be driven to in order to restore Earth to humanity."

"I can't believe that," Nightwing answered. "Bruce is a good man, no matter what world he's in."

"You have so much faith in him," Forerunner remarked, her stony voice taking an almost purring quality. "I wonder . . ." She stood closer to Nightwing. ". . . what it would be like to trust and believe as much as you do."

Nightwing had no idea how to take that. Forerunner had sounded so serious when she said that to him, but the glitter in her eyes, those strange obsidian eyes, told him another story. He couldn't tell what he was seeing in those eyes. Was it passion? Was it curiosity? Was it longing? Was it fascination? Was it something else?

Then the spell broke and Forerunner turned away from him. "Come. We should see how Mar'i Grayson of Universe-22 and Kara Zor-El of Universe-16 are doing and inform them – and the rest of our unit – of our mission."

"How do you know?" Nightwing asked.

"I am psychically connected to the Monitors," Forerunner replied. "Now come."

Nightwing followed Forerunner into the Justice League's tech lab, where they found Steel supervising Kara and Nightstar as they worked on the designs for anti-Kal-El weaponry. The girls seemed to be making excellent progress and even getting along fairly well. "If you recalibrate the –" Kara started to say.

"– and adjust the shielding matrix," Mar'i continued.

"They seem to be getting along very well," Nightwing remarked.

"Yeah," Steel agreed. "You'd never know they were from two separate universes, the way they carry on."

"Mind if I talk to you alone?" Nightwing asked, slightly uneasy.

"Is your girlfriend gonna tag along?" Steel inquired sardonically.

Nightwing didn't bother to contradict the "girlfriend" part. "No."

* * *

Soon enough, Steel had led Nightwing to a secluded area of the base. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Nightwing sighed regretfully. "Forerunner told me that our team . . . to save this universe . . . would have to not only kill Kal-El and Darkseid, but Batman and Luthor, too."

Steel put a hand on his forehead and then pulled it back. "I'm not surprised."

"What do you mean?"

"Lex has always been bad news." Steel's tone was one of resigned anger. "Before Kal-El blew into town, he owned Metropolis, both its legal industries and its underground economy. He was branching out into other cities, both inside and outside this country. Gotham was one of his prime targets and that was when he and Batman started clashing. But when Kal-El showed up and threw a monkey wrench into everything, Lex and Bats buried the hatchet and joined forces. A more optimistic person would think that Bats would temper Lex, but I think it's the other way around."

Nightwing kept his expression controlled, but the shock was in his body language. "Do you think, if it comes down to it, if Lex goes too far . . . that Batman will turn on him?"

"At this point, they're almost egging each other on," Steel answered cynically. "It's no surprise. Couple of billionaires with brilliant minds, they probably think they know better about what's good for the world than everybody else. Lex is just more upfront about it."

Nightwing grew more and more disheartened with each word Steel spoke. He couldn't believe it, he _couldn't believe_ that any version of Batman could be almost indistinguishable from Lex Luthor. Sure, his Batman had had his dark moments from time to time, but within that steel core lay a beating heart full of compassion for his fellow man.

"There's no way."

Steel looked at him, allowing Nightwing to continue. "There's no way that Bruce Wayne could be that far gone."

Steel placed his hands firmly but gently on Nightwing's shoulders. "Get it through your head, kid. The Batman you know doesn't exist here."

"But I can't just . . . kill him." Nightwing's tone was almost defeated. "I can't . . ."

"You really love this guy, don't you?"

"He's my father. He gave me a home, gave me hope, gave me a reason to keep going after I lost my parents."

"I understand." Steel's voice was a comforting rumble. "I understand how hard it can be to let go, to acknowledge that things can't be the way you thought they were or should be. But if you're telling the truth about saving reality, then you gotta make the hard choices. That's what heroes do . . . and I can tell you're a hero."

Nightwing looked up at Steel and nodded, slowly, determinedly. "Steel! Nightwing!" they heard Kara call.

The two men walked into the tech lab. "You're finished?" Steel asked.

"Uh-huh," Nightstar confirmed.

* * *

The Justice League and the reality jumpers had gathered in the lab to see what Kara and Nightstar had created. "This should be interesting," Green Lantern remarked.

Nightstar held up a chrome-plated, high-tech bow without a string. She pressed something on the bow and a green energy string materialized between the curved ends of the bow. Kara passed Nightstar a sleek arrow with a chrome-plated shaft and a high-tech arrowhead that seemed to glow on either side. "This is an armor-piercing sunburst arrow," Nightstar explained. "It's made from a highly aerodynamic material that also muffles sound as it travels through the air. The arrowhead is surrounded by an electromagnetic energy matrix that operates at a frequency that interferes with the shielding field that reinforces Kal-El's armor and the bioelectric field that naturally protects his body. Once it penetrates Kal-El, the arrowhead will detonate and release red solar radiation throughout his cellular structure, stripping him of his powers and making him just as vulnerable as any human."

"And what if that doesn't work?" Maxima asked skeptically.

"We also have Kryptonite arrowheads," Kara replied.

"How come that doesn't hurt you?" Static asked.

"My universal vibration pattern is foreign to this dimension," Kara explained. "Therefore, Kryptonite in this universe will not affect me. The Kryptonite arrowheads are also armor-piercing and have a more-than-ninety-percent chance of lethality."

"And what if that doesn't work?" Blackfire asked.

"Then Jade channels the mystical elements of her power to beat him down as hard as she can, weaken him enough for someone of comparable strength to land the finishing blow," Nightstar answered. "Ideally, we will use her power in conjunction with the arrows to finish him."

"Why a bow and arrows?" Batman asked.

"Nobler than a gun," Nightstar replied. "And some of my best friends were archers."

"Sounds pretty good," Green Lantern remarked.

"You sure this will work?" Hawkgirl asked.

"We've recalibrated and rechecked everything a hundred times," Nightstar replied. "Ok, Kara has; her brain goes as fast as she runs."

Kara visibly preened. "Thanks for the compliment."

"I'm to take it that this will be an assassination by way of sniping and not an open battle," Maxima deduced.

"Yes," Batman confirmed. "With someone of Kal-El's power, we cannot risk an outright confrontation. That is not how we've survived up to this point."

"Who's going to do it?" Daybreaker asked.

"You guys can't be serious!" Static exclaimed, unable to contain his shock any longer. "We're talking about killing Superman like he's any other bad guy!"

"In this universe, he is," Nightwing answered with grim sorrow in his tone.

"Who's gonna do it?" Daybreaker repeated.

"I will," Batman stated.

Nightwing heard Batman's statement, remembered Steel's words about the nature of Batman's association with Lex in this reality, and shuddered internally. If Steel was right, if Forerunner was right about what they needed to do in order to truly save this universe . . .

_No . . ._

* * *

End Notes: There's a good point to end it on. We all know the Kal-El in this universe is a bad guy, and thanks to Forerunner and Steel, we don't know if Batman and Lex Luthor are any better. Lex, you could have guessed from a mile away, but Batman? Then again, in certain interpretations, it does make sense for Batman to have taken this turn. A certain kind of twisted, morbid sense, but it does make sense. Can Kal-El truly be killed, though? Is there a way for Nightwing to save this universe's version of his mentor and surrogate father? And just what else will the heroic reality jumpers find in this world? For the answers to those questions and others, read on and let me know what you thought of this chapter. Peace.


End file.
